Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 23, 1995 TAG: 9508230056
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ADRIANNE BEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But just as Christmas came back to Whoville, a new caboose has come to Blacksburg. And while the small and the tall may not be dancing about it holding hands, they seem glad to have it back just the same.
"Most don't even know the park's real name," says William Winfrey, director of Parks and Recreation in Blacksburg. "Everybody just calls it 'Caboose Park.'" After the caboose's demise, Winfrey received letters from disappointed children who "really missed the caboose and wanted to see another one."
The caboose stood in the park from 1970 until its fiery death last spring. The new caboose, donated by Norfolk Southern Railway, arrived Tuesday and rolled into its new home amid the swings and see-saws. Apparently, the company sent one a while back, but Winfrey says "they lost the first one they sent."
"How do you lose a caboose?" the puzzled reporter inquires. "I have no idea," Winfrey answers.
"It's very important to the children," he says of the caboose.
Well, maybe most of the children. It hasn't fazed Daniel Lane, 9, too much. "I didn't worry about it," he says. "I just rode on the other rides ... and hoped they got another one."
"It's kinda historical," says Rusty Lane, 12, a student at Dublin Middle School who remembers the good old days of the first caboose that boasted slides and poles to climb on. "You don't see many old ones like this anymore."
Says Winfrey: "It's something that inspires their imagination."
"A lot of adults think it's neat," Rusty Lane says. Apparently so.
"I heard a great deal from the adults," Winfrey says. "Several volunteered to help repaint it or start a campaign to raise money to restore it."
But nothing could be done.
Hopefully the new caboose will not become a welfare case. "This one's metal," Winfrey says. "It won't burn." The deceased caboose was made of wood.
It all proves you can't keep a good train car down. Just as the little engine who could chugged up the tracks with a little confidence to fuel him, the Blacksburg caboose has emerged like a Phoenix from the flames so children can climb inside and play again.
"Are you guys glad to have the caboose back?" a group of children running in its direction are asked. "Uh-huh," says a blonde-haired girl looking at the ground. The rest nod their heads in agreement and then take off and disappear inside the new attraction.
by CNB